


Tête-à-tête

by princessoftheworlds



Series: It's not a crime to love what you cannot explain [17]
Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, F/M, Post-Season/Series 04 Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-16
Updated: 2017-12-16
Packaged: 2019-02-15 16:44:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13035273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princessoftheworlds/pseuds/princessoftheworlds
Summary: Caroline returns to Mystic Falls after her high school graduation and has an intriguing conversation with someone in the Mystic Grill.





	Tête-à-tête

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this prompt:
> 
> Hi. So, a Klaroline prompt: Caroline was never turned in a vampire. Everything elese happened just like in canon. But Caroline was lied by all her friends and kept in the dark about the supernatural world. Until, Klaus begins to be intrigued by her. (I imagine it happening somewhere around graduation) So what can happen between the Big Bad Hybrid and the girl who was never enough?

Caroline surveys the Mystic Grill as she enters it, heels click-clacking against the wooden floor; it hasn’t changed even the slightest in the year-and-half since she was last here. There’s the same, old log-cabin aesthetic and dim lighting that somehow made it the town’s most popular high school hangout. Her opinion of the place and the town itself had diminished in the face of her life out in Georgia.

Still, some things were a comforting sight, especially that of Matt Donovan still stuck behind the bar.

He’s still cleaning a glass with the rag usually tucked into his apron when Caroline drops down on one of the barstools directly in front of him, the hem of her sundress brushing against her bare calves.

“I think that glass’s clean enough,” Caroline says, her tone light and teasing.

“What?” Matt says, nearly fumbling and dropping the glass from his shock. “Care? Holy shit! It’s really you!”

She smiles brightly at him, reaching over the bar to wrap him in a tight hug. Caroline relaxes into Matt’s warmth, breathing in the musky scent of his sweat and cologne mixed in with the reek of alcohol.

Registering the edge of the bar that is beginning to dig into her stomach, she released Matt and sits back onto her stool. “Hey,” she says. “How are you?”

“I’m fine,” Matt replies, still smiling. “Yesterday was graduation, but I still gotta work today. Does anyone know you’re back in town yet?”

“Nah.” Caroline traces the edge of the bar’s peeling wood with her manicured fingers. “I just got in this morning. Mom picked me up from the airport. I thought that I’d pop in and surprise Bon and Elena. Are they coming here?”

“We’re supposed to have lunch here. They’ll be here soon. Can I get you anything until then, Care?”

“Just water,” Caroline tells him, watching as Matt turns his back to her and grabs a clean glass.

At that moment, the stool next to Caroline’s screeches against the floor as someone takes a seat beside her.

“One bourbon,” the stranger orders in a refined English accent that Caroline would not expect in small-town Virginia.

Matt sets the glass of water in front of Caroline before turning to greet Caroline’s neighbor with steely eyes and a sneer. “On it,” he grits out, Caroline watching the exchange curiously.

She’s never seen Matt stare at someone with such pure loathing.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you around here,” the stranger says causally to Caroline. “I would have remembered a face so stunning.”

Caroline snorts. “Does that line actually work?”

The stranger stares at her, eyes slightly widened and stunned for a moment, before his lips slowly pursue into a smirk. “Let’s just say that it was worth another shot to try it on you,” he tells her charmingly. “But I really don’t think I’ve seen you around town before.”

“You’re right,” she replies. “I live out in Atlanta with my dad and step-father. I’m just visiting some old friends after their graduation. I’m Caroline. Caroline Forbes.”

There’s a moment of dawning realization in the stranger’s stormy eyes. “Sherriff Forbes’ daughter?”

She nods. “You know my mom?”

The stranger chuckles warmly. “My elder brother Elijah has dealt with her many times for his business since we moved here last year.”

“You’ve a brother?” Caroline asks.

Is this Elijah anything as attractive as the stranger? He looks only a few years older than her, twenty-two or twenty-three, but is the hottest guy she’s seen in a while.

Especially with those dimples and rumpled curls and his lithe, muscular build filling out that Henley quite nicely.

“How rude of me,” the stranger says suddenly, and Caroline’s gaze darts back up to meet his eyes. His smirk widens like he knows where Caroline’s mind was wandering, her eyes having lingered on his strong, denim-clad thighs. “My name is Nik Mikaelson.”

Matt chooses that moment to drop Nik’s glass of bourbon onto the bar counter with excessive force, the alcohol sloshing side-to-side but somehow not spilling. He gives Caroline an endearing grin. “I’ll be in the back. Lemme know, if you need anything.” Matt ignores Nik as he disappears into the Grill’s backroom.

“So,” Nik begins causally. “How do you know Donovan?”

“Matt? I’ve known him since preschool; we’re close friend. We dated for a few months before I moved to Georgia.” Caroline winces, knowing that she’s noticeably blushing. “I kinda dumped him over text.”

It wasn’t her proudest moment.

Nik laughs, a low, husky sound that causes heat to pool in the pit of her stomach. “He seems to have taken it well.”

She’s probably bright-red right now. “Yeah,” she admits awkwardly. “Matt’s always been a sweet guy.”

Nik arches an eyebrow. “I suppose. We aren’t exactly on friendly terms.”

Caroline snorts. “I can see that. What happened?”

“Let’s just say that Matthew is my sister Rebekah’s newest paramour, and we don’t quite see eye-to-eye on that,” Nik tells her.

“So, you have a sister too, and all three of you moved here sometime while I was in Atlanta. What else did I miss?” Caroline sighs. “As much as I loved living with my dad and his husband, I still wish I hadn’t moved.”

“Why did you leave then?” Nik asks, settling closer, his eyes boring into hers as the distance between them diminishes

“I got into a bad car accident after Founder’s Day two years ago. Had a brain injury and barely recovered. I spent two weeks in a coma and missed a big chunk of school while I was in physical therapy. My mom convinced me to spend the rest of the year with Dad, and I agreed. It was a bit hard beginning senior year without my best friends, but I guess it was what I needed.” Caroline shrugs. Her hand shifts along the bar top, brushing against Nik’s forearm.

“I can’t imagine, Caroline,” Nik comments sympathetically, the sentiment made even intimate by the way his accent caresses her name. “My brothers, Bekah, and I moved around many times when we were younger, but we were always mostly together.”

“Brothers?” Caroline repeats in disbelief. “You have more siblings?”

“Several,” he confirms. “It’s … complicated. Elijah is the currently the oldest, and I am the middle child. And Bekah just graduated yesterday with Donovan.”

Sensing his uneasiness, Caroline changes the topic. “So, Elijah is a businessman, and Rebekah just graduated like me. What do you do?”

Nik smiles mischievously. “I’m an artist.” He holds up his right hand, the one not close to Caroline, as evidence, and she eyes the charcoal-stained fingers and faint streaks of paint.

“Oh,” she replies. “What do you paint?”

“Scenes of nature, day-to-day life, artifacts, cities, beautiful women,” he lists, his head shifting closer as Caroline unconsciously leans forward. “Anything that catches my eye.” His left hand comes to rest on Caroline’s, and he slowly strokes her wrist with his thumb as they gravitate towards each other.

“Care!” Elena cries as she enters the Grill and spots Caroline, breaking the spell of magnetic attraction between her and Nik.

Elena comes rushing to Caroline, Bonnie close on her heels. She grabs the blonde and wraps her in a tight hug, Bonnie smooshing Caroline from behind until she can’t help but feel a little suffocated.

“Elena, I missed you,” Caroline gasps out. “And, Bon, I missed you too. But you need to let me go. I need to breath. I’m only human.”

At the mention of _human_ , Elena, who had been gripping Caroline with unnatural strength, abruptly lets her go and steps back. Caroline remains gripping Bonnie’s arm gratefully.

“How have you been?” Bonnie asks, beaming.

“I’m good, Bon,” Caroline says, feeling as if a great weight has been lifted from her chest now that she’s been reunited with her best friends. “We’ve got so much to talk about. We gotta catch up.”

“We were just heading up to the Salvatore Boarding House. Matt will be joining us too,” Bonnie tells her. “Wanna come?”

“Why not?” Caroline says. “It’d be nice to meet Stefan again. How’re you guys doing anyway, Elena?”

Elena’s face falls a little bit, and she begins to look sheepish. “Stefan and I broke up.”

Caroline almost gasps loudly. “What! But you two were epic! You were meant to last.”

Elena just shrugs casually. “We fell out of love. I’m dating Damon now.”

Now, Caroline does gasp. “Damon? Damon “I’ll fuck every woman in Mystic Falls” Salvatore? Damon?”

Flushing, Elena snaps defensively, “He’s not like that! You dated him.”

“For like a week, Elena,” Caroline states, “before I realized how fucking creepy he is.”

She doesn’t mention how she still wakes up, hyperventilating, in the middle of the night sometimes, her sheets soaked with sweat, expecting to find a dark figure in her bed.

Bonnie, the mediator, knows to intervene again. “Come on, Care. You just got home. We’ve got all summer to talk about this.”

Caroline smiles gratefully. “Hold on. Lemme talk to someone before we leave.” She turns around to face Nik, who, by now, has drained his glass of the bourbon. “It was nice meeting you, Nik. See you around town.”

“I’ll keep an eye out,” he replies, flashing her a handsome smile that places his dimples on display and causes Caroline’s knees to tremble slightly.

“Klaus,” Elena hisses venomously as she comes to Caroline’s side, finally noticing Nik. Behind Elena, Bonnie’s eyes harden as her face takes on an expression of abhorrence.

“Who’s Klaus?” Caroline asks cluelessly.

“I am, sweetheart,” Nik states dignifiedly, something _dark_ flashing through his eyes before he winks charismatically at Caroline. “My name is Niklaus Mikaelson. Nik to people I care for, Klaus to people I don’t.”

“Okay…” Caroline trails off awkwardly as she observes her friends as they glare at Nik.

Or, is it Klaus?

“C’mon, Care,” Bonnie says coldly. “We’re getting late.”

Before Caroline can protest, Bonnie is bundling her out of the Grill, leaving the blonde unable to hear Elena’s exchange with Nik.

“Leave Caroline alone, Klaus,” the doppelganger demands shrilly, lips pulled back into an ugly frown. “She doesn’t know anything. She’s just a useless human.”

Klaus laughs cruelly. “Caroline Forbes is clearly so much more than that, and even you know it, love. I have no mind to leave her to be.”

He doesn’t allow Elena another word before he slips off his stool, drops a clump of bills onto the counter, and makes his way out of the Mystic Grill.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr [here](http://princess-of-the-worlds.tumblr.com/).


End file.
